Can I make one?

Now that you’ve been seeing the awesomeness that is Reading Journal (you can call him RJ now that you are all so familiar….) I know what you’re thinking:

“Wow! That girl is crazy! Why would she read so many books anyway?”
ok, the other thought:

“How could I do that?” 

Well, I am here to tell you it’s easy. You just need a few things:

  1. Some kind of  notebook. I like moleskines because they don’t fall apart, but you could just do blank pieces of paper and scan them into your computer, or use a lined notebook if you don’t want to draw…
  2. Some kind of way to get books. Libraries are the easiest.
  3. Some kind of  goal. How many books do you want to read? What kinds of books? It’s good to set a goal at the start.
  4. Some kind of  plan. What do you want to include in YOUR reading journal? It is YOURS, so include whatever you want. In mine you will find, at various times:

    Title
    Publisher
    Author
    Illustrator
    number of pages (if bigger than a picture book)
    First and last line (I like to know these as  writer)
    Date read
    Where the book came from
    How long it took to read aloud (I was doing this for the picture books but then ran out of time)
    And a picture from the book (this, again is another thing that I like doing that you don’t have to do…)
    Reactions to the book and notes. (You can really expand this part if you’d like. I like to note down what I liked, and sometimes the Point of View, what type of font was used, and what the illustrator used to make the pictures. Again, these are specific to me.) 

  5. That’s all! You are on your way!!
I have found Reading Journal to be a great way to keep track of what I’ve read.
Have anything you include in yours? Let me know!
Kathy Ellen

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